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BrumHour saw Dreamboats and Petticoats: Bringing On Back The Good Times at the invite of The Alexandra.
For Brum Radio’s Interval Theatre, Mark Wynter spoke about his role in this production. Listen below.
By Dave Massey twitter.com/BrumHour
Review: Dreamboats and Petticoats: Bringing On Back The Good Times at The Alexandra
⭐⭐⭐⭐A charmingly fun production
Directed by Bill Kenwright, book by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran
It’s the mid 1960s and the sound of rock and roll even larger, Laura (Elizabeth Carter) accepts a job in Torquay for a summer season with Frankie Howerd on the proviso that her boyfriend Bobby (David Ribi) and his fellow bandmates, The Conquests, are also given a summer gig. Larry (Mark Wynter) sends them off to Butlin’s in Bognor Regis.
This is a charmingly fun production filled with buckets full of nostalgia. If you grew up in England in the 60s or had family that did, you will know a lot of the music that is used to drape around the story. The production is filled with a mixture of gentle humour and some naughty jokes plus David Benson’s turn as Kenneth Williams is deliciously delightful!
Despite the female leads following the men around half the time, it is actually the female roles that are most clearly defined by the story here with Elizabeth Carter, Samara Clarke as Donna and Lauren Anderson-Oakley as Sue each getting their moments to shine.
There’s plenty of fourth wall breaking here too as teen heartthrob turned actor Mark Wynter gets introduced as himself in the second half for a melody of his top ten singles from the 1960s.
The set is staged for the band at the rear and then posters of retro products adorn the wings and several signs lower down to tell us what location we are at. Simple but effective adding to the overall concert style of the show.
Bringing on Back The Good Times is exactly that, and really, at its heart its all about the music of a generation, from Keep on Running to Sealed with a Kiss, from Stop! In the Name of Love to Lipstick on Your Collar, it is hit after hit after hit. The acoustic cover of Blue Moon was my favourite track from the whole show and really demonstrated the strong sense of community from the cast
Dreamboats and Petticoats: Bringing On Back The Good Times is at The Alexandra until 26th March 2022. The UK tour currently continues until 30th July 2022. See the dates here: kenwright.com/portfolio/dreamboats-and-petticoats
